The best stuff on Destructoid this week [4/26]

[We post a lot of articles here at Destructoid. The endless, ouroboros news cycle has us burning the snake at both ends, which will ultimately push big news, thoughtful original pieces, and all sorts of other great content off of the front page. Check here every Saturday for my attempt to rectify that.]

My Amazon accounts basically just recommends v-necks and anime these days. What does your recommend?

Seriously, Nintendo. Make another god damn Pokemon Snap. Yes, this is a total rider of an issue, but we're talking about videogame photography and Pokemon Snap is great! Despite releasing a console with pointer controls, Nintendo couldn't have another one made? But there are three Pokemon Ranger games and like five Mystery Dungeons?

There Chris Carder goes with remembering things again. Hasn't he learned? It's like James Woods famously said: "If we forget our history, everything will be really cool and nothing bad will happen at all."

From there, Illidan turns into his iconic demon form, at which point a Warlock with shadow resistance needs to tank him -- yep, this fight requires a Warlock, a tactic we had to figure out on our own, as we geared him up to prepare. Then the real fun begins, as Maiev Shadowsong swoops in and creates traps on the ground to move Illidan over. This phase is extremely nerve-wracking, as one small move can wipe the entire raid, forcing them to start back at the beginning.

Max had his dumbest idea yet; handing the show over to me. What if more games had downloadable content voice packs the way they put Snoop Dogg into Call of Duty: Ghosts? What kind of celebrities would work for that kind of thing? The answers may surprise you.

Sorry for the delay! Here's this week's episode of Farts 'N' Crafts, in which I draw something I've drawn rather compulsively since I was ten years old -- Boba Fett. Also, I show off some of the pictures you guys drew of Pokémon and Call of Duty!

This week, Hardline went into dangerous territory with a five-person show. It wasn't a disaster, but it sure could've been! (Well, it was, but for different reasons. Kidding. A little.) Hamza Aziz, Steven Hansen, Dale North, and Brett Makedonski joined me to cover big stories of the past few days, like the PS Vita upping its PSP/PS1 game compatibility (temporarily, it turns out), what's new with Watch Dogs, and the Game Boy turning 25.

On April 21, 1989, the original Game Boy leapt onto store shelves bundled with a copy of Tetris, and to date it's gone on to sell 118 million units. Most of them were me purchasing additional copies of Pokémon Red and Blue to force people to trade with me since trading alone with a link cable ceased being so much fun. Or Monster Rancher Battle Card GB.

As we learned this past week, Marty O'Donnell is no longer with Bungie after nearly two decades at the company. His music is iconic in this industry, and the Halo series owes a part of it's infamy thanks to what he did on that series without a doubt.

Last weekend during its panel at PAX East, Firaxis announced the next big project for the Civilization franchise: Civilization: Beyond Earth. After the announcement, Destructoid took some time to talk to some of the designers behind bringing the strategy series into space.

I'm actually still not sure what's going on. I mean, I understand the plot. The rest of the game is just so weirdly abstract. There's a giant, evil Pomeranian. But I'm excited to play more. Every time I died I was itching to have another go at it.

Whatever your approach ends up being with Unchained, it's probably going to be vastly different than what you're used to from the other Orcs Must Die! games. Just because the namesake and art style are the same, doesn't mean that it's the same Orcs that you played in the past. No, Unchained is going to do all it can to make sure that you balance your playstyles, or suffer defeat as a result of your neglect.

So yeah, Skylanders Trap Team. If you're a fan of the series, you already know you'll be picking this one up. I did want to make some special mentions of other playable characters before you leave. There's Chopper, a new core hero who's a little tiny T-rex with a helicopter rotor on its back. It can fly in the air and shoots swarms of missiles like it was straight out of Robotech. Then there's a duo team of villain trolls who control a walking chainsaw tank. Just let that visual sink into your head.

Of all the games I got to see at PAX East, Extrasolar is one of the few that has invaded my psyche so completely. I make sure to schedule photos before I go to sleep, and I check them right when I wake up. Heck, I am playing the game right now, eagerly looking forward to what my next photo will turn up, and what revelations will arise from that within its hidden narrative.

Namco is taking the format of Gundam Vs. and bringing it west with a new IP, the free-to-play Rise of Incarnates. And you know it's been developed specifically for the west for several reasons. First, the initial stage being shown off is New York, with the post-apocalyptic staple crumbling Statue of Liberty. Second, there is a blond character with big hair. He looks just like us, my fellow Americans, with his rock and roll nonchalance and red leather jacket.

It is currently up on Kickstarter with eleven days left in the campaign, but has already surpassed its initial funding goal of $100,000. At about a hundred dollars (including shipping costs), it is about in line with higher end board games, but those approaching it from a videogame perspective may see the cost of entry as being too high. Regardless, the technology and the ideas behind it look very promising for role-playing enthusiasts from either side of gaming.

All in all, though I was taken by surprise with the control, Chasm is still looking as good as ever. The demo featured some light puzzle solving and genre staple backtracking adding to game's requirement for a thoughtful approach. By the time I was descending down the newly fixed lift, my mind was in the right place and I felt ready to take on what would come next.

This is a pared down departure from Grid 2, but "without ripping the fun out of the experience." There are difficulty settings (if you are capable of playing at higher difficulty, you get more rewards and can advance through the career faster) and the Flashback rewind button for taking a mulligan on mistakes. If only that was a thing in real life.

Then a more formidable looking opponent was fooled into walking over unstable planks and falling to his death. It's a sneaky, easy way out for the player, though you miss any loot. I'm wondering if that was just a novel instance or if things like this will be frequent. It would seem a bit tacky to keep putting weak planked pits before areas with larger enemies, after all. There is some promised non-linearity in map design -- doors that you might not want to go through until halfway through the game, but could earlier -- but I'm not sure how much or how far that extends to the mechanics. Can't let that combat system go to waste.

Where most games with a focus on player choice (The Walking Dead, Mass Effect) tend to tell a linear story with slight variations, Dyscourse appears to be on track with fulfilling its promise of a truly branching story. With ten days worth of choices, the number of possible combinations could be staggering. If it ends up with only a fraction of that number, it could still be quite a special adventure indeed.

The diverse landscapes are backed by the procedurally-generated environment, where you'll always be discovering something. The world is not quite as seemingly infinite as say Minecraft, but Unknown Worlds hopes to make it at least feel like the world is limitless.

This is all reflective of what is meant to be a darker story focusing on player choice. The point of view is always Ludger's and throughout the story you'll be tasked with making binary choices (mapped to L1 and R1) that affect how certain scenes play out, Ludger's relationship with party characters, and the end of the game.

Square Enix's follow-up to Theathrythm Final Fantasy has finally been confirmed for release in North America. That's right: Theathrythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call is coming our way sometime this year, priced at $39.99.

You know how a bunch of us were thrilled to see Sony finally "unlock" the remaining PSP and PS1 games for use on PS Vita earlier this week? It took forever to see that list of compatible titles grow, but it had finally happened. And there was much rejoicing.

Apparently, it was all just an accident. It's been undone. I guess that explains why Sony never issued a statement. Users who were able to download games like Crash Bandicoot and other treasures locked away from PS Vita are once again not able to do so. We're back to the way things were. If you did manage to get some of your titles downloaded, though, you're in luck.

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